Saturday, November 29, 2008

Cakes Galore!

Assembled a birthday sliced cake platter recently - I had alot of fun going every where to buy slice of cakes to try (especially since I was rather sore that I missed Ladyironchef's Obolo outing) . This isn't the first time I'm doing this platter because I did this for my birthday too trying cakes from Obolo (and the awesome durian puffs from Puteri Mas opposite), Canale, Cedele, and the Big O. I posted a picture of my platter (but no individual reviews) previously. This time round though, I bought the cakes from Hilton Checkers Deli, Big O, Rive Gauche, Canale and Bakerzin.

First up... the 4 SUPERB cakes from Hilton. They are famous for their cheesecakes but my family used to order the American Cheesecake for birthdays ALOT so we didn't eat any this time round. Reading my all time favourite cake blog - Fen's - I realise that the Hazelnut Royaltine sounds like the type of cake I wanna try - I only intended to buy this particular cake but i ended up buying another 3 slices because they were sooooo visually appealing! And they ALL tasted as good as they look, which is of cos the most important.

This is my favourite cake of all the cakes featured in this post simply because the crunchy praline layer was really thick! Usually when i eat other praline cakes (from the Patissier or chocoabloc) I'm always eating the thin flaky biscuit layer at the bottom first - but there is so much of the crispy layer in this! I really liked it -most of the middle section was this Ferroro Rocher crispy biscuit layer. It is not very dense, and the rest of the cake was filled with hazelnut mousse.

Unlike Tiramisu, this cake is really DENSE and the coffee aroma is really quite strong. This cake is really good if you like dense coffee-chocolate. There was hardly any sponge in this - which is good for dense cake lovers like me.

This cake was calling out to me cos I loveeee Snickers!! Peanut - caramel - chocolate..beat that! And what is great about this cake is that the bottom layer is the peanut crisp - I mean, I would rather pay 1/3 of the price and eat the real Snickers candy bar but this crisp layer made all the difference to eating this Snickers cake. The topping of caramel popcorn made it all the more fun to eat the cake too =)

It slipped my mind that Snickers was on the melamine radar some time ago but oh well. Such a late after thought.

St Marc

Butter Cream, Choc ganache, Dacquaise sponge, Hazelnut

You will like this cake if you like butter and hazelnuts because this cake was really creamy. The topmost layer was the thickest - full of butter cream followed by sponge then another layer of hazelnut cream. What breaks the monotony of all the milky goodness is the bottom dense dark chocolate ganache layer. Quite a creamy cake - as compared to the other 3 cakes from Hilton which were really dense.

The next 2 cakes are from Big O

Indecent obsession

Chocolate Hazelnut cake

I tried this during my previous birthday cake platter and liked it enough to buy it again. But this time around I didn't get to eat these 2 slices of cakes from Big O (sigh) but from the last time I ate it, I conclude that you'd like this cake if you like chocolate fudge cakes (like those from Awfully chocolate). But this cake is more interesting to eat because again there's the crispy hazelnut wafer layer, which goes really well with the fudge and sponge. A sufficiently moist chocolate cake as well, and a good balance between chocolate and hazelnut - not too heavy going and dense.

Bailey's Irish Cream Cheesecake

This was the lonesome (only) cheesecake which I didn't get to try!!!! oh well another time then. The previous birthday platter I tried the Spike D - this chocolate covered durian puree cake that is semicircular in shape. That was awesome!

I tried this before a long time back during Yvonne's birthday (Jason bought it for the birthday) and Jason and I were raving after that about how good it was, I really couldnt stop at one slice. But having tried it now again..(and having tried all these other chocolate hazelnut praline cakes =P) I think the chocolate sponge layer was a little to thick for me - I would prefer more mousse and a more dense cake. Again, the crispy biscuit was the clincher but its too thin!

This cake is gorgeous -okay it looks WAY better in the brochures - and its not only the photography okay, you scrutinize it properly and you'd realise they decorate it much better in their catalogs - the hazelnut praline is not supposed to be a layer like that but supposed to be like little globules of praline creme. Okay im a sucker for aesthetics, but even taste wise I don't think it impresses much. The milk chocolate was slightly sour - the same taste as Cadbury chocolate. It got difficult to eat as well because I dismantled the whole cake when i sank my fork in. This cake had plenty of hazelnut cream and crisp but the sour chocolate just didn't cut it.

Chocolate Amer

Flourless chocolate sponge layered with bitter chocolate mousse

oops i forgot to remove the plastic wrapper but This is THE cake that earned Bakerzin a spot in the top 50 cakes but again I'm not very impressed by the quality of chocolate used. For someone who likes a balance between sponge and mousse, the balance is good here. But then again, I am not really a fan of flourless chocolate cakes too, I found the flourless chocolate cake at Laurent's average only, compared to his awesome chocolate tart and souffle.

LavandeLavender infused dark chocolate mousse cake

This is what saves Bakerzin for me because this cake was excellent. I forgot how aromatic Lavender can be and it added a different dimension to chocolate cake - i got really sick of dark dense chocolate-hazelnut-cream after a while (yes i tried all these cakes in one sitting because otherwise my family will finish everything!!). Hardly much sponge in this cake as well, alot of dark chocolate cream.

The next 3 cakes are from Canale at Paragon

Chocolate Nutella Pie

Dark chocolate tart + Nutella

Dark Chocolate cream

This is a new offering from Canale but it doesn't taste as good as it looks (or sounds). I could hardly taste any Nutella in any layer. The best chocolate tart is still from Laurent's. This dark chocolate layer was really HARD! And the pastry layer at the bottom was not the flaky type (like the one from laurents) but more of the buttery biscuit type.

Caraibe

Dark Chocolate cream 66%, Dark Chocolate cake 66%

Hazelnut nougatine, almond chocolate glaze

My all time favourite cake from Canale. Dense, dense, nutty, nutty - there are whole hazelnuts in the thickkkkk layer of dark chocolate cream! It is like a whole chocolate hazelnut bar (the chocolate is very very dense) with a minimal layer of sponge at the top. Awesome!

Le Royale

64% dark chocolate mousse, Chocolate genoise with rum

Almond succes, Hazelnut feullitine

This cake has a better balance of mousse, sponge and the crispy hazelnut layer. The cake that earned Canale a spot in the top 50 cakes.

Overall, I really enjoyed the Hilton cakes the most and im glad i tried them as my family has been ordering their American cheesecakes all these years without realising the other goodies they have to offer. Even better now that Christmas is coming, we know where to get our logcakes and sugar fix from =)

9 comments:

"especially rather sore with missing the obolo outing..." lol! never mind la, next time can have another dessert tasting again, if not u can ask me along when u want to organise another dessert platter again : )

hey brad, yeah i bought it all in one day..i went from one end of town to the other man...i've 5 other people to share it with la haha but not like i needed the help cos we were fighting over the cakes! (thats why no more big o cakes for me left to try)

Lol... That is indeed very sinful... Lots of cakes wor and I missed your comments on my blog as you always bring me lots of recommendation... Now, I know why you are so well-versed in cakes... You eat so many in a go... Wow!!!

I am glad you like the hazelnut royaltine... That has always been my favourite, thick praline with rich smooth chocolate mousse...

St. Marc and Indecent obsession (actually u recommended this but I didn't have time to pop by Big O) might be the next I am going to try, judging from your description, sounds unique...

Gaunaja needs some "thawing", the mousse will be very smooth after it has warmed up alittle... I haven't tried it for quite some time but for a period of time, I love this alot...

As for sweet pleasure, I did have the little globules of praline creme on my last visit. Have a look..

http://sgcake.blogspot.com/2008/08/sweet-pleasure-from-bakerzin.html

but I agree with you that it didn't impress... :D

I thought the chocolate amer has the best flourless chocolate sponge but then again it has been ages since I last ate it. Quite surprised you didn't pick up any of the christmas special from BakerZin and yes, Lavande was heavenly...

So out of curiousity, what is the logcake you are going to order for this year?

hello fen, you are my ultimate cake bible lar, this post is nothing compared to how much you have tried!

oh i didnt get any christmas cakes this time around because this was meant to be a birthday platter =) i havent thought of christmas log cakes yet - my family tradition is to get the swensens icecream log cakes though..will try something different this year!

i think you should try L'opera from Hilton first. That was awesome caffeine (dense) goodness! St Marc is if you like butter cream alot - the hazelnut flavour is slight.

Yeah the big O indecent obsession is yummy. It looks like the Seah Street deli (at Raffles Hotel)ultimate chocolate cake - which I've yet to try.. If you like durian cakes you can try the spike D from big O

and well i don't leave recommendations on your blog that often now cos you've simply overtaken me in trying out so many! are you gonna be at nectarie tmr with the bloggers?

oh but you didnt like many of my recommendations! (except laurents=P) i think we do have differing tastes!

oh if i do skip clinics tmr i'll join you all..but its lunch time right?? cakes = lunch? oh but desserts come first for me too =P130 is not really tea time haha. brad asked me about it and will contact him if i can make it.